This invention generally relates to pizzas, and more specifically to pizza shells and to methods of making pizza shells.
The conventional pizza pie comprises a dough base formed into a generally flat, circular or rectangular shell and covered with a sauce and a topping. Normally, the dough is a bread dough, the sauce is a tomato sauce, and the topping includes cheese and often also includes other foods such as pieces of pepperoni or anchovies. An outer edge crust is formed around the perimeter of the dough base to hold the sauce and the topping on the base as the pie is made. The pie is then baked in an oven, cut, and eaten.
Pizza is a very popular food. Nevertheless, the conventional pizza pie does have several disadvantages. For example, many people do not like to eat the baked outer crust of a pizza and often they simply throw that crust away. In addition, usually only a relatively limited number of food products are used with pizzas. Another disadvantage of pizzas of the general type described above is that the amount of the topping provided with individual pizzas normally is also within a relatively narrow range. Pizzas do not have the same flexibility as sandwiches have, for example, with respect to the range of different food products or the quantity of food products that are normally used with pizzas.